Airport Master: Version Change Log: Latest Changes

Please note:Airport Master is currently in Early Access Public Alpha stage of development. Some features described here may (and will) change from version to version as game development progresses. If you participate in early-access public alpha testing, keep in mind that savegames created with earlier versions may become unreadable in newer versions.

Game workflow

Fixed serious bug with aircraft requesting STAR/SID (instead of visual arrival/departure) while flying actually under VFR but having return flight scheduled as IFR, which in turn may have resulted in Aircraft/Helicopter flying out of bounds of game world and throwing an exception, which in turn may have prevented adequate processing of data when re-loading any saved game that had been created after such occurrence; fixed

Added protection for any kind of out-of-game world boundaries flights that may have happened due to any bug with approach departure type mismatch, the affected aircraft is removed from game world silently without affecting Player's rating with owner Airline; added

Fixed bug with Airport Administration HR division processing Service Hangars request to hire new staff incorrectly which caused hiring additional 65 personnel for hangars H4 and H5 each time a saved game is loaded; additionally a correction mechanism was introduced that catches this kind of incorrect behavior (per each individual institution requesting HR division to hire and fire personnel), then checks against number of required specialists and either tries to determine which are duplicate hires and fires those or if data is big, simply fires everyone and re-hires correct number of positions; fixed

Fixed bug with Aircraft waiting for ATC clearance indefinitely when game had been saved, while ATC had no indication that Aircraft is (still) awaiting clearance; thou previous behavior is more natural (ATC calls 'standby for clearance' and keeps track of who is waiting for clearance), in reality there are too many possibilities that error-correction algorithms or asynchronous processes may prevent ATC from calling back with clearance, especially on game saving and re-loading, especially for lengthy operations such as Service Hangars operations; fixed

Added a version-specific fix-up for all of the Players whose airplanes burnt all the fuel while waiting to say leave the Hangar, due to bug(s) fixed in this release; this fix is purely cosmetic as it refills fuel tanks of such affected Aircraft to the value that had been there before a bug manifested, without actually spending Airport fuel or bringing profit, so just that you can continue playing without seeing zero or negative fuel in tanks; added

Flight scheduling

Fixed numerous bugs with Flight Scheduling system that may have been caused by out-of-bounds and IFR instead of VFR bugs, described above; fixed

Added the following Flight Schedule cleanups: a) flights that have departure flight plan without arrival operation finished (due to any sort of IFR/VFR nav-points bugs); b) any residual linked flight ops that may have been left from saving a flight schedule with bugged flight operations and then re-loading the game; c) orphaned flight operations, with either departure missing an arrival or vice versa; d) flight school airplanes not correctly reporting an operation (LOCAL FLIGHT) has ended upon instructor and student disembarking the airplane; added

Changed the procedure of initiating a new Flight Operation: from now on any Delayed flights (for any reason, be that any bug or intentional delays due weather, routing or aircraft incapability to arrive at STAR initial fix on time, ground delays (both incurred by Player and again weather conditions, other factors like events and quest activities (e.g. Mayor delays his flight, a MedEvac flight is delayed waiting for patient to arrive etc.) are now processed in the same main thread as on-time flights, reserving half-minute separation slots for concurrent arrivals and reduced (or increased) priority on departure; changed

Changed how non-regular airlines schedule flights: the algorithm (apart from probability of new flight plan filed based on time since last time a given airplane or helicopter been in Player's airport) has been changed completely: a) flight scheduling for non-regular airlines is now properly split for helicopters and airplanes (this tremendously hard-to-catch bug had sometimes caused TimeSkip function to lock on fade-to-black phase since a mixup was happening: a helicopter would try (and succeed) to file a flight plan as an airplane, which would cause an unrecoverable error prior to screen coming back from fade to normal (end of TimeSkip); b) helicopters now properly schedule VFR only flights from 0530Z to 1500Z with actual arrivals starting around 0730Z and latest actual departures complete by 1700Z (note: helicopters flying under SVFR - military, MedEvac, Police, Mayor would not be affected by this rule as SVFR heli flights have their own flight scheduling algorithm); c) airplanes can still properly plan flights as VFR (from 0730Z to 1800Z under VMC) as well as switch to IFR if departure flight is to happen at night time; fixed / changed

Fixed very randomly manifesting bug with Service Contract Airplane receiving taxi instructions to taxi to apron A instead of hangar, which in turn may have caused further havoc with Time Tables; from now on, such mishandled aircraft are automatically fixed on loading a savegame - yet the price is that we have to un-schedule all other flights for given aircraft for remaining days of the week, as there is no way to tell how bizarre may have the further scheduling for given aircraft be affected; once returned to proper Service Hangar and all potentially messed up flight plans for given aircraft are removed, it then again becomes available for flight planning and Owner Airline may re-schedule it; fixed

Fixed Airlines not being notified when their aircraft are forcefully removed from game world, thou normal leaving TMA worked fine; from now on any forceful removal of aircraft from game world requires owner Airline to reset corresponding flags for such aircraft so to make it available for scheduling new flights to Player's airport sooner; fixed

ATC

Added out-of-bounds check to every 10th radar sweep, that excludes local area flights; added

Fixed Flight clearances and Taxi clearances issued during IFR/VFR bug mentioned above staying in ATC system as valid clearances and thus preventing further TimeSkips and reclaiming of taxiways previously marked as occupied (while the aircraft affected by the bug were actually taxing on those, but been removed after loading a savegame with erroneous data); from now on those invalid Flight and Taxi clearances are cleaned up on every game loading and also in the event that any Aircraft is forcefully removed from game world (without affecting Player ratings with owner airline); fixed

Fixed Radar relying on Flight identification instead of Aircraft unique ID to display last pulse readout when an aircraft had already left the game world or had been forcefully removed by any of error-correction routines, which may have caused a serious error in Radar system operation; fixed

Changed STARs PAROM 4W and PAROM 2D to go deeper in Hon Valley, skipping the mountain range and allowing both for faster descent and not leaving Radar depiction area (especially 4W procedure for runway 16); changed

Graphics Engine

Fixed detail draw distance manager incorrectly interpreting draw distance settings for some city-side and agricultural area buildings (city houses, rural area housing, greenhouses) which may resulted in those building not rendered at either very near or very far detail draw distance setting; fixed

Fixed numerous bugs with semi-transparent shaders not utilizing dedicated semi-transparent render queue, which should result in slight to moderate performance improvement on slower machines, especially when switching from distant airplane view to one of the views at the airfield; this fix also ensures best performance for upcoming foliage, 3D-birds, trees and other objects that benefit from using dedicated semi-transparent render queue; fixed

Changed how graphics sub-engine handles optimizations for narrow stretched shapes such as taxiway markings for long taxiways; the new routine allows for partial pre-render, conditional pre-render and detail draw distance influenced sequential render of such elongated shapes for much better view and smoother transitions; changed

Changed minimal lights visibility range for Calvert approach lighting system installed on runways 16 and 34 for white lights of medium intensity from 800m to 1100m, for red lights and white lights of high intensity from 1100m to 1400m; this tweak is intended mainly for Players with very old GPUs who had lowered Detail Draw distance to lowest setting thus making older approach lights visibility values unrealistic causing a visual effect of approach lights 'kicking-in' very late on approach; this tweak does not affect the visibility of Calvert approach lights in fog and rain, only plain VMC value; also no tweaks were applied to MALS-R systems installed on runways 17 and 35, as Detail Draw distance setting there (even on minimal slider value) worked correctly - partly due to the fact that MALS-R model measures distance from its third bar and newer Calvert model does so from runway threshold; changed

User Interface

Fixed switching to correct Tab in Airport Contracts basing on where a call happens from: so from a 'Service Contract complete' notification the Service Contracts tab will open, while clicking Fuel Contracts in FBO screen will open Fuel Contracts tab; fixed

Fixed incorrect use of 'Show notifications when an Airline increases our rating' option, despite the name and correct usage elsewhere, Service Contract Complete Notification used incorrect value of 'show when decreased' which may have caused in unwanted notifications to appear regardless of the option setting in Administration/Airlines screen; fixed

Fixed Service Hangars brief display (lower part of Service Contracts UI screen) may have become locked from being updated by some Service Contract related bugs; now it updates data independent of Service Contracts module; fixed

Game workflow

Added Negotiations System to the game (currently only Fuel Purchase Offers are subject to Negotiations procedure; more Negotiations to come in future versions); The Negotiation system works as a mini-game of quick reflexes for Player, the rules are as follows: once there is a contract of some sort, it's final amount is now negotiated by Player Avatar (Airport GM) and partner company Negotiator; a window pops up where one can see parties Negotiating - both parties have their CON and NEG attributes shown (note: partner company Negotiators have higher chance to have higher negotiating skills on higher game difficulty setting); below that Player can see a Negotiations Bar, inside which a Negotiation Plank is running from top to bottom and again to top; the speed of Negotiation Plank is determined as difference in Negotiators' NEG skill (so if Player Avatar has NEG skill of 8 and opposing Negotiator has NEG skill of 2, the Plank would be running 60% slower and vice versa); inside the Negotiations Bar there is a Green Zone which represents the most lucrative discount area, with its center being the Highest Possible Discount; the Green Zone area size is determined by CON skill difference of Negotiating parties (so if Player Avatar has CON skill of 2 and opposing Negotiator has NEG skill of 10, the Green Area would be running 80% smaller and vice versa); within the time, defined also by Player Avatars' NEG skill (lower skill equals less time to negotiate), a Player should stop the Negotiation Plank whenever he or she deems its being closest to the center of the Green Zone - once the Plank is stopped, the final negotiated sum is deemed settled and negotiations are over; if for some reason, Player did not stop the Plank within time of negotiation, and time runs out, the Plank stops at that millisecond by itself and resulting sum is deemed settled and negotiations are over; added

Added new Control Tower to east apron (part of Terminal 2 upgrades set), elevating some 23 meters from roofing level of Terminal 2 for total elevation of about 35 meters, the new Tower features spacious Control Room with dedicated workplaces for DEL, GND, TWR and APP controllers, modern flat monitors etc., external stairs and internal elevator access from terminal upper floor to Control Room and tower rooftop (stairs only), organic in design to Terminal East architecture, great view of Apron East operations; note: Player can use keyboard shortcut (key [2]) to cycle between Control Towers views; added

Added new Ground Movements Radar (GMR) system (as part of Tier 5 Airport Upgrades) to new Control Tower East; GMR extends for additional 1,88 meters from Tower rooftop, sharing electrical and data wiring physical site with Tower East elevator motor hub; the radar itself is typical modern GMR-system operating in K\Ku band with 5m antenna in protective shell, rotating at 60rpm (1 second sweeps); ground radar displays will become fully operational in later versions of the game; added

Re-enabled random wind-scheme preset selection on starting new game (previously disabled for purposes of testing runway-specific Ops for runways 16 and 34); from now on each new game again starts with randomized wind direction, speed and gusts speed - which in turn determines runway in use on new game start; changed

Added new airline - Clean Power Corp; this airline has base at JNCR airport, currently has a known fleet of 2 AH-134 helicopters that it uses to monitor and service multiple Wind Power Generators across the region; in future versions, CPC will become one of non-typical airlines that require special attention (thou currently all its flights are classified as General Aviation); added

Changed how new game initial state is created: startup state templates are gone for good, instead a universal startup state algorithm now generates initial state for a New Game, totally randomized, with regard to starting Airport Upgrade Tier, weather conditions, aircraft types, flight rules; this flexible implementation ensures best variety for game day 1; changed

Added per-aircraft-type parameter Required Turnover Time; previously that Airlines decided exclusively on turnover time, from now on, Airlines cannot request turnover times to be shorter than minimum turnover time for given aircraft type; added

Changed routing of vehicles around potentially congested areas of Apron West: new vehicle wait zones (mandatory full stop lines) were added to avoid slowing down of airport vehicles traffic (and even possible lockups) when the number of cars using same driveways was exceedingly high; changed

Re-enabled Service Hangars H4 and H5 to accept aircraft for checks and repairs; changed

Changed how FBO hires staff for hangars H4 and H5 upon Airport reaching Upgrade Tier 4: from now on a non-uniform template of required staff is applied individually to each of these hangars, also a protection was installed to prevent accidental double-hire of staff even when changing Airport Upgrade Tier back and forth via Dev Console; changed

Fixed Fuel Truck 2 not appearing immediately after the Upgrade Number of Fuel Trucks is purchased; fixed

Added 140 new avatar presets to Avatar System, allowing for much larger diversity in avatars both for male and female NPCs; added

Added a key to Avatar definition signifying that given avatar is taken by a Negotiator for partner company and thus is excluded from rotation of random avatars; added

Fixed Weather System bug enabling generation of surface wind layer with wind direction opposite of currently dominating surface winds (e.g. lowest surface layer wind of 140@10G14 while prevailing winds would be 350@5G10) - from now on, the major trend for lower wind layer determines all sub-layers general wind direction deterministically; fixed

Added AutoSave interval selection to Settings; Player can now select whichever interval is suitable in the range of 5 minutes to 1 hour; added

Added capability to disable Hi-Quality Particles and Hot Air Effects is Settings; if disabled - Hot Air Effects are not rendered and Lower Quality (less CPU-hungry) particles are rendered; an option for old GPUs on older machines; typically these options should stay enabled for any machine with GPU 5 years old or newer; added

Changed how safety pulsating red lights on tall buildings and airport facilities utilize rendering (specifically light mapping) pipeline: since there is no visible shadow from a red light that has visible corona of no more than 20cm, all pulsating red safety lights were changed to a much simpler light-model, excluding shadow cascades that on more than 40 of those lights around the airport (and more to come on tall buildings in the city) saves up to 3,5% on shadow queuing render routines, while new lights look even better and more realistic than the old ones; changed

Added Detailed Roads Generation prototype 5 module to the game (fully working and creating pretty good 6-lane and 8-lane highways and roads with sidewalks); first 7 detailed segments of generated Detailed Roads are now active in vicinity of Terminal 1 (Apron West) and about 5km to Pontemarlo area and about 4km to Hon Valley, intermediate connecting roads are active from main highway to Terminal 2 (Apron East) and around it; some overlapping of sidewalks is possible and will be addressed in future versions of this module; added

Added new City side road features: Roofed Car Parking (4 storey tall) - 1 added next to Open Car Parking Lot near Terminal 1 (thus completing the Terminal 1 Road Side), 2 added next to Terminal 2 (Apron East); also added 3 new Open Car Parking Lots and 3 new Bus Stops next to Terminal 2 (Apron East); those will be fully working Parking Lots and Bus Stops, with cars and buses moving in and out once the general auto traffic in Airport area and around Appleton City is fully implemented; Parking Lots and Roofed Car Parking Buildings near Apron East will become available automatically as soon as Player upgrades airport to Tier 4; added

Changed power consumptions for both Passenger Terminals; Terminal 2 (Apron East) now consumes considerably more electric power; corrections made to take into account all the new electronic equipment in Terminal 1 (Apron West); changed

Aircraft

Changed Flight Dynamic Physics module to a new version. Previously, the entire Physics of Flight ran in intentionally limited 'safe box' environment (most notably this could have been seen when looking in close-up at airplane takeoff - once the aircraft's main wheels left the ground it looked like it slowed down a bit - this was the previous version of safe box environment for simulating physical forces on aircraft at a reduced clock specifically to ensure correct calculations on that model of Physics of Flight; from now the new version of Flight Physics does not require a 'safe box' nor does it require any limitation of clock while running simulation, thus all limitations have been removed. Players may have such a perception that 'everything started moving faster in the air' - but in reality, it's just the discretion of new Physics of Flight engine we use, thou of course, everything moves in the air much smoother now; changed

Added Airecoach Helicopters AH134 [AH34] (real life prototype: Airbus Helicpoters H135, previously Eurocopter EC135) helicopter, a pinnacle of new-age innovative design featuring fiber-composites, fenestron (fan-in-tail) instead of classic tail rotor and an anti-resonance isolation system, all of which not just make it superb in performance but also rightfully nominate it as the most quiet helicopter in its class. Can be outfitted for SAR, Evac, Emer, Mil and other roles; helicopters in the following liveries were added: AP-BOS (GovFlight, City Mayor's Helicopter), N230T, N422C (both operated by CleanPowerCorp), N436R, FOTLS, VBPJJ, QETRX (all four privately owned); added

Changed AN25 aircraft configuration so that shortened takeoffs of this fully loaded cargo aircraft are no longer a viable option for a pilot; will use full-length takeoffs, thou shortened landing rolls for AN25 are possible depending on load and weather; changed

Added tail-mounted ground-light capability to helicopters; added

Added airspeed restriction curve to simulate smooth speed up of high performance aircraft up to 250kts limitation below FL100: acceleration altitude of 1000 ft is simulated as well as gradual airspeed growth from 1000 ft to FL70 - this is implemented in order to restrict too much of performance of some engines in new Physics of Flight model; added

Changed APU startup and shutdown properties on several aircraft equipped with APU; changed

Changed (reduced) delay for power and compressed air becoming available for engine start after APU startup; changed

Changed blurriness effect of Helicopter main rotor blades shadows increasing with main rotor RPM for more realistic view; changed

ATC

Changed takeoff\go-around time intervals to more precisely account for aircraft wake turbulence category: when a L (light) WTC aircraft is taking off (or going around) before speedier M or H, following him an interval of 2 minutes is introduced; same goes for when L is about to takeoff after H; for all other cases 1 minute takeoff interval is set;

Cameras

Added camera positions for quick jump to H4 and H5 hangars from Service Contracts screen; added

Added Tower View camera switching capability: when Player presses key [2] on keyboard or clicks Tower Cam icon in main UI, the next key press or icon click cycles between Tower West and Tower East; added

Fixed immediate Details Draw Distance-affected details redraw not happening correctly (in the same screen redraw cycle that the Camera is actually moved to new position, which sometimes caused visible glitch causing Detail Draw Distance module to ignore immediate redraw command and instead redrawing details only on next free cycle (dynamic pipeline), which in turn may have caused a delay of up to 300ms before actual details redraw may have happened in Graphics Engine pipeline; this was most noticeable on Tower View and Terminal View cameras; fixed

Sound

Added new sounds for AH34 helicopter engine and main rotor recorded from the real-world prototype; added

Fixed sound distribution model type for all helicopters being incorrectly set to single-piston configuration; actual helicopter-configuration sound distribution in space is used now for all helicopters; fixed

Added new sound of power transformer and bar rotation for Ground Movement Radar, installed on rooftop of new Control Tower East; added

User Interface

Added Negotiations System UI popup overlay used for negotiating pricing on various contracts, deals etc.; added

Changed how FBO Fuel Contracts UI work: new fuel contract offers now explicitly list the Negotiator for shipment of fuel in available offers list, so that Player can decide whether he or she wants to engage in Negotiations with more or less skilled Negotiator as well as volume of fuel on offer and time of delivery; after the Negotiations take place, the offer remains visible in contracts list showing status of offer and in case the purchase or negotiation is not possible stating the reason why; changed

Changed: upon Player upgrading Fuel Offers - new fuel offers are now generated and are available for negotiation immediately; changed

Changed Main UI Info Bar showing wind of direction North as 0 to correct 360; changed

Split Settings window in two panes, that are now displayed to the left and to the right of in-Game Menu ([ESC] key) - Left Setting Pane contains gameplay and game engine-related options, while Right Settings Pane now contains options specific to graphics and audio; changed

Added view toggling action to Control Tower View button in Main UI - Player can now click this button first time to go to Control Tower view (Control Tower West if Airport Upgrade Tier is less than 4 and Control Tower East is it is higher), then second time to cycle view to opposite Apron Control Tower (if Airport Upgrade Tier is 4 or higher); added